Getty Steve Kerr and Jordan Poole of the Golden State Warriors.
The Golden State Warriors picked up a much-needed win on Friday night, taking down the Cleveland Cavaliers. And what was most impressive about the win was the fact that Golden State was missing Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins.
While the Cavaliers were missing Donovan Mitchell, too, it was still a great win for the Warriors. However, it didn’t come without its fair share of drama. At the end of the third quarter, Jordan Poole got called for an offensive foul, and head coach Steve Kerr began yelling from the sidelines. Curry took the chance to speak about the incident on Instagram.
“Hey for all the kids watching this clip…Coach Kerr coaching like he should,” Curry commented on a post by House of Highlights, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “JP taking the energy the right way. Both of them move on to try and win the game!!! @houseofhighlights Make sure you show how @jordan_poole bounced back after this.”
The Warriors were attempting to inbound the ball, but Poole ended up pushing off on Raul Neto, leading to the officials calling him for an offensive foul, giving Cleveland the ball. Poole argued with the referees, and afterward, Kerr could be seen yelling at him to “lock the f*** in.”
It came at a fairly crucial point in the game, too. With just over four minutes to go in the third, the Warriors were up by 20 points, but by the time Poole committed the foul (and turnover), Cleveland had cut the deficit to just seven points. And after Golden State picked up a technical for a delay of game, it was 12 points.
The young Warriors guard finished the night with a great statline, leading Golden State to a win. He dropped 32 points, three rebounds, and two assists on 10-of-23 shooting from the field and 5-of-12 shooting from beyond the three-point arc.
Steve Kerr Breaks Down Incident With Jordan Poole
As could be seen on the sidelines, Kerr was not happy with the way Poole handled things. The Warriors were trying to maintain a lead without most of their star players, and he had just picked up a foolish offensive foul.
That being said, after the game, he noted that Poole has been playing well as of late. But in that moment, he just “snapped.”
“I’m going to stay on Jordan,” Kerr said via NBC Sports Bay Area. “He’s continuing to grow and he’s getting better. I think the last two games, he was fantastic in terms of staying off the referees. He got the offensive foul and then held the ball as he talked to the ref, and that was a delay of game. So I’m trying to get Jordan to the point where he understands every play counts and every moment counts. So, every once in a while, I snap and I snapped in that moment and he looked at me like I was nuts. But it’s all part of it. I love Jordan and I love the way he’s playing and he was incredible tonight.”
Stephen Curry Discusses Warriors Change
Before their win over Cleveland, Golden State suffered a brutal loss to the Boston Celtics. In that game, Kerr switched up the starting lineup, inserting Poole over Kevon Looney – a change he said he plans on sticking with. Curry spoke about the change after the loss to Boston.
“There’s strength and weaknesses to it,” Curry told Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “But we got great shots with it tonight. Came out with a lot of juice. We gotta be better at rebounding. If we give up size, we gotta be more physical, prepared to rebound. But it gives us great space and gets us great shots, and you gotta like the way we can play fast and put pressure on defenses.”